It began with a silence
a silence I hardly heard,
lost in all the silences,
lost in all the noises of the world
and then the first drops
whispered on my skin
so soft I hardly felt them
left me staring
at the dust dry earth
wondering what I knew
and then
suddenly
downpour
I’m hosting at dVerse tonight! I’m asking people to think about harbingers, beginnings, the way things can start almost without us realising it. Do join in.
Sarah writes poems 
That’s the poem of someone who lives in a desert. The silence that precedes all changes in nature. Great theme for the prompt btw.
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Thank you, Jane. I’m looking forward to reading the results.
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🙂
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An ominous harbinger is silence but I do love to feel the first drops of rain and the sound of a good downpour! You’ve captured it so well in your poem, Sarah. My favourite lines:
‘…the first drops
whispered on my skin
so soft I hardly felt them’.
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Only a few times I’ve felt rain this way… when it goes from that silence to a few drops and downpour… if only we could listen carefully to silence
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This is so lovely, Sarah. I think of the silence of the start of snowstorm, too.
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We were driving in Louisiana one summer, and a tornado warning was on the radio; it became night at noon, and there was a terrible silence as the darkness mantled us. Then in the distance we could here a deep faint rumble, like a train coming. We escaped at 120 mph, but the memory lingers.
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LOVE it! You’ve made me be right there with you. And oh yes…..I do recognize not hearing the silence. Sounds like it would be impossible…to hear the lack of sound. But oh when we do, it is almost always the harbinger of something momentous to come!
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As I read this I looked at it as the silences in a relationship. Beautifully constructed to convey the prompt so well.
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I’m so glad you picked that up. I wanted to conjure that up a little.
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I love how this builds Sarah – the subtle signs, almost imperceptible and then the onslaught – a metaphor for many times in life.
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Thank you. I’m glad that came across.
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It is lovely when we just know…
A downpour of (just) knowing…
This is life (and love).
Anna :o]
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A silence I hardly heard – silences speak volumes if we can only hear them in the midst of the noises. This is a great poem creating a visceral response – sensory imagery but I am left wondering which sense(s) has been triggered. Just fabulous!!
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I could feel and hear the downpour! This poem is just as refreshing 🙂
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I have seen this happen many times. You can see it coming over the mountain or up the valley knowing your are in for a downpour! Very Good!
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Rains in the desert a harbinger of new life. This is beautiful…
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Yes! The silence that swallows silences before the rain. So true, so real!
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There is so much to like in this poem, especially the silence before the storm.
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Yes — harbingers are the faint whispers of what suddenly becomes everywhere at once — like faint outlines of a cliff we’ll always remember in the drowning pool below.
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Nice line: “wondering what I knew” and the downpour at the end.
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Aah! I’ve been caught in a few of those. I can smell the initial sprinkling of the parched earth. Love this.
Pat
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Wonderful write, enjoyed this Sarah…
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this reminds of the calm before a storm, when the air just seems to stand so still, even whispers can be heard, such control in your words
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